The 2007 conference, held August 25-29 in Trondheim, Norway, focused on teaching and learning in medicine, medical education, and health care needs and assessment. FAIMER staff (whose names appear in bold) and Fellows (whose names appear in blue) participated in the following course, workshops, symposia, short communications, and posters:

Fundamentals of Assessment in Medical Education (FAME) is a joint project of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), which debuted at the 2007 Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) meeting in Trondheim, Norway, August 23-29. FAME is a collaborative activity following from FAIMER and NBME’s Memorandum of Understanding, signed in July 2006, to develop a framework for working together to improve global health professions education.

FAME is a basic-level course on educational assessment geared toward medical school faculty who are new to teaching and assessment and individuals who have assumed new responsibilities for assessment. In this first year, 22 registrants from 12 countries participated in FAME.

FAME is designed around two complementary dimensions of assessment themes (Test Design; Test Material Development; Standard Setting; and Scoring, Analysis, and Reporting) and assessment frames (Assessment of Knowledge and Reasoning, Assessment of Clinical Skills, Assessment of Workplace Performance, and Assessment of Programs).The course schedule includes one and one-half pre-conference days consisting of plenary and small group sessions. Small group work was organized around the four frames, culminating with each participant, together with faculty facilitators, preparing a conference itinerary to guide their attendance at AMEE conference sessions in a way that would supplement and extend their assessment knowledge and skills. During the conference, faculty and participants met daily over lunch to review sessions attended. At the conclusion of the AMEE conference, faculty and participants met again to sum up the course experience, address remaining questions, and discuss possible future study.

Evaluations have been received from 19 of the 22 participants. For the most part, these were very positive, but, as expected, several weaknesses were identified. Follow-up discussions with course faculty have confirmed several suggestions for improvements and these are being devised for a subsequent offering in 2008.

Fundamentals of Assessment in Medical Education (FAME), a basic-level course on educational assessment, will be introduced at the next Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) meeting August 25-29, 2007 in Trondheim, Norway. FAME targets individuals who are members of medical faculties and who are likely to be relatively new to teaching and assessment. Persons who have assumed new responsibilities for assessment are also likely to benefit from the course. FAME is designed around two complementary dimensions, five assessment themes (Test Design; Test Material Development; Standard Setting; and Scoring, Analysis, and Reporting) and four assessment frames (Assessment of Knowledge and Reasoning, Assessment of Clinical Skills, Assessment of Workplace Performance, and Assessment of Programs).

The course schedule will include one and one-half pre-conference days consisting of plenary and small group sessions. Small group work will be organized around the four frames listed above, culminating with faculty facilitators preparing a conference itinerary for the participants in each of the frames. During the AMEE conference, faculty and participants will meet daily over lunch to review sessions attended. At the conclusion of the AMEE conference, faculty will sum up the course experience, address remaining questions from participants, and discuss possible future study.